Almost a year after 13-year-old Reysean Abram was shot to death while riding his bike home from a party, his mom and 5-year-old sister are ready to forgive his murderer.

The young man who prosecutors say fired the fatal shot, 18-year-old Lonnie White, took a plea deal at the end of May, pleading guilty to second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder.

White is scheduled for sentencing Thursday afternoon.

“I’m going to forgive Mr. White,” Abram’s mom, Reyniko Abram, said Wednesday in a phone interview. “He don’t know my son. He don’t know me. He is a casualty of war. He was just doing what he was told to do.”

The suspected gang-related shooting happened on Aug. 30 in the 4700 block of North Enid Way in Montbello. Shots were fired from a passing car, and Reysean was struck.

Reyniko, who now lives in North Carolina but will be at Thursday’s sentencing, said she did not know her son was a gang member, but now says Reysean was a member of the Crips gang who had an argument with a member of the Bloods gang that started on Facebook.

The plea deal allows the judge discretion to sentence White to between 20 years and 40 years in prison.

Marquise Lewis, 20, who prosecutors say was the driver of the vehicle and who provided the gun for the shooting, also was charged with first-degree murder. He is scheduled to take a plea deal on Aug. 29.

A third person — a juvenile — had charges dropped early this year.

But what upsets Reyniko Abram more is the thought that people may have used Reysean’s death for publicity, and haven’t followed up with change.

“I felt … I don’t want his death to be in vain,” she said. “That’s what I thought maybe the mayor was doing when he came to the funeral and spoke as if he was asked to do so, but he hasn’t done anything. What are they going to do about it?”

Since the shooting, Callanan says gang activists have been expanding intervention programs to serve younger kids, and training of youth workers and parents now includes awareness of how younger kids often communicate through social media.

“One thing Reysean’s death did, was it really outlined a gap in services,” Callanan said. “We have kids as young as 13, 14 — some as young as 12 — that are more involved in gangs and need something more than just a prevention service. They need an intervention service but one that’s age appropriate.”

Yesenia Robles is currently a breaking news reporter for The Denver Post. She has covered education, crime and courts, and the northern suburbs. Yesenia was raised in Denver, graduated from CU Boulder, and speaks Spanish. Call her with your story ideas at 303-954-1372.

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